High numbers of ferrel dogs are found guilty of killing young farm animals. The numbers are out of control they say.
 Wild domestic cats have also spread far and wide and kill defenceless native animals almost to extinction.
  Horses wear coats. Surely they would like to fling the coats off and run free.  The same as we get impatient with clobber towards the end of winter.
  Lassie Come Home is a quaint and very old movie in the largely British version and just viewed for the first time. Who knows about the origins of the DVD emanating from Taiwan with Chinese subtext from a famous on line supplier.

Before anyone knew it, an unusual surge of floodwater swept away houses on each side of the road in Dungog last April.
  Dungog tyre service is left in shambles.  Other residential areas were under water on that dark night.

 High noon at Dungog Station. Country Link and the local train is seen there a couple of times each day.

Endeavour River, Cooktown.
Two months earlier, June 1770, explorer, Cook, limped into the sheltered waters. The isolation was rather extreme in the event of shipwreck yet a whole nation of indigenous people was near.
About 6 August 1770 the Endeavour left after repair work and sailed north to Indonesia on the return to England.
The recorded details are tragic, it was no love boat. 
The township is below hidden from view.

 Where the tropical rainforest meets the sea in far north Queensland a Cassowary (bird) and youngster strode by.  Numbers are killed and injured by cars and their rehab centre has lost its funding.
Numerous road signs alert motorists to the presence of the birds but they have a risky life and need all the help they can get. 
Next sand crabs played marbles on the beach.

 White House. Autograph from a diner who was a president.  Who, where?

Months of who-ha on the presidential election are ahead. Ho hum.  Please, not all that to end up with a Donald Trump or his ilk.
Photos from Port Douglas, Queensland and from the top tropical Salsa Bar and Grill. Is that THE seven eleven?
Is it an urban myth that the president made a hasty retreat back to the US after receiving reports of the disaster while he was out dining.

Shocking error. 9/11 is more accurate and Clinton was an ex-president by then, it is believed.

Flood water rose up to the top and over the bank on the eastern side.  The bridge had been smashed and a young archer shot an arrow about 40 metres to carry a rope across the river to set up a rope and pulley with an indispensible milk crate used to carry supplies back and forth. 

  The bridge served a small community.  Alternative access over private property has been made but is not as handy.

Timber from the bridge had

lasted a long time and shows signs of old age and a lot of repairs.

 

 Torryburn, out beyond Newcastle, where a bridge was washed away in the April weather event.
The span was high and a zig zag path climbs to the level of the former roadway after crossing a temporary foot bridge which lies closer to the water level in the Allyn River.

Liquids. This is Macca free country.  This is beyond the Golden Arches. No sighting are made of McDonalds in some northern latitudes despite the global reach. The inbetween snacks are ok at McCafe, parking is always handy, newspapers to read, the scene is familiar, or too familiar, for the traveller.

  Underground water is pumped to a watering hole near the highway. Supposedly ready for whatever live stock are in the area even when nearby rail transport is no more. Judging by the hoof prints all the cattle carefully follow the same little track as they approach the dam despite the wide open spaces.  Ducks also like the oasis.
  The greenery is a change but the thorny plant is a pest that spreads.

Skeletal remains of a rail link ran near a cattle yard.
Then disused rail lines were put to use to build the fences.
Once upon a time the steel came from Scotland it seems.
No rail, it is road transport nowdays.  Of southbound traffic, 98% were vehicles moving cattle to Roma area. Northbound traffic was 98% southerners heading to warmer latitudes in recreational vehicles.